If you don’t know God by personal experience, you have a hand-me-down religion. You have a second-hand religion, not a first-person encounter. You are missing the boat.
The good news is that God wants you to know him personally. That means to actually experience a sense of oneness with him. This isn’t just reserved for mystics and saints, it is for all believers.
Conversion
And there’s a pathway to this. It begins with conversion. A real conversion, not just saying some prayer. Saying a sinner’s prayer does not make you a Christian. And many have been deceived into believing they’re Christians, when they are not.
True conversion is turning from a self-centered life to a God-centered life. It means making Jesus Lord and Savior. You make him Lord by changing your heart from serving yourself to serving God, and you make Jesus Savior by believing in his death and resurrection for your sins.
The Three-fold Way
Then you enter into the three-fold way, which is purgation, illumination, and union with God. Purgation deals with habits of mind and body. Illumination deals with false beliefs and illusions. And union deals with entering into oneness with God in conscious awareness.